Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan pursue united front strategy

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan plan to campaign together again sooner than aides had originally planned, likely twice next week, as part of a new offensive to take on the touchy issue of Medicare, campaign officials tell POLITICO.

Despite the continued skepticism among GOP operatives in Washington and on House and Senate races, Romney officials insist that the addition of Ryan has produced a more confident campaign with a clearer message, focused on big ideas rather than the pettiness that had earlier threatened to submerge the race.

Text Size

-

+

reset

Romney and Ryan had planned to go their separate ways before meeting up at the end of the month at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. But then campaign strategists saw how much of a psychic boost Romney got from Ryan — and how much more animated Romney appeared on television with his younger running mate at his side.

“They really like each other and they feed off of each other,” campaign manager Matt Rhoades said. “There’s an energy, there’s a chemistry.”

Advisers say Ryan helps ease the former governor’s feeling of isolation. And the campaign wants to replicate the size and enthusiasm of last weekend’s crowds, which were the largest of the campaign so far. So the two will hold a town hall Monday morning at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., and are likely to appear together in the Midwest later in the week. In the meantime, Ryan will work swing states while Romney raises money.

Ryan pointed out Sunday in his interview with “60 Minutes”: “My mom is a Medicare senior in Florida.” His mother, Elizabeth “Betty” Ryan Douglas, 78, who splits her time between Florida and Wisconsin, will appear with him Saturday at The Villages, Fla., known as the world’s largest retirement community.

Trying to disarm the weapon Democrats believe the Ryan pick handed them, Romney has begun to embrace the young congressman’s brand by talking increasingly about the ticket’s plans for reform, albeit in vaguer terms than the nitty-gritty that has been Ryan’s hallmark.

This new strategy reverses the campaign’s earlier rope-a-dope approach, which tried to keep the focus on President Barack Obama. On Thursday in Greer, S.C., Romney — no longer the candidate of patriotic hymns — used a whiteboard to contrast his Medicare plans with Obama’s.

To be sure, the debate is likely to be more sniping than substance — more attacks on Obama than parsing of the options for entitlement reform. Advisers say the campaign has no plans to pivot from its previous view that diving into details during a general-election race would be suicidal.

The Romney strategy is simple: Hammer away at Obama for proposing cuts to Medicare and promise, in vague, aspirational ways, to protect the program for future retirees — but don’t get pulled into a public discussion of the most unpopular parts of the Ryan plan.

“The nature of running a presidential campaign is that you’re communicating direction to the American people,” a Romney adviser said. “Campaigns that are about specifics, particularly in today’s environment, get tripped up.”

But aides believe there is a way for Romney and Ryan to present a vision of fiscal discipline so starkly different than Obama’s as to provide voters a clear choice, even without all the details.

“At the end of the day,” Rhoades said, “the American people are going to have to decide: Do they want to clean up the mess right now, or do they want to wait another four years, when it’s even worse? Do they want business as usual or do they really want to tackle the big challenges for a change?”

A Romney campaign official added: “I know there are some people in Washington, D.C., that are scared to talk about Medicare. We’re not. We’ve got a million hits on Medicare. We’ll do it for as long as they want. Let’s do it. It’s policy, it’s substance, it’s the future.”

The strategy carries significant risks: That approach could create confusion over Romney’s actual views on the Ryan plan — and an opening for Democrats to define the GOP nominee before he can define himself.

When CBS’s Bob Schieffer asked Romney on “60 Minutes” about the election becoming a referendum on Ryan’s budget plan, Romney replied: “Well, I have my budget plan, as you know, that I’ve put out. And that’s the budget plan that we’re going to run on.”

Romney said Wednesday that the two men are on the same page when it comes to Medicare. This was two days after he told reporters he assumed they were not on exactly the same page. “We’ll take a look at the differences,” Romney had told reporters in Florida on Monday.

Readers' Comments (1134)

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan plan to campaign together again sooner than aides had originally planned, likely twice next week, as part of a new offensive to take on the touchy issue of Medicare, campaign officials tell POLITICO.

................Actually Mitt and Paul have flipped that "touchy" issue off on Obama/Biden and they did it pretty fast. They are hitting the DC market pretty hard with their new ad on how Obama took $716 billion from "today's" Seniors to feed ObamaCare..............lol............and omg.

Mitt and Paul are like they say in Boston "wicked smart" it's the best ticket I've ever seen. Both men are honest and decent and both have a long history of working with both Democrats and Republicans.

We can can do this !

Romney/ Ryan ....................time to Fix America once and for ALL.........

.....huh? I thought liberal/progressives were suppose to be tolerant and better then others.........more mocking from the Left? And no substance........

Anyways Romney attempted to explain the difference between Obama's medicare plan and his. This video is 10 minutes long and the last minute was a question about Mitt taxes, again, and so the only thing Obama's MSM Super Wolf Pac press pals wanted to talk about with everything going on in the world and in our own country.....................Mitt's taxes, again......not Medicare.....

Folks you just can't make this stuff up. I sure hope Obama gets on his knees everynight and thanks God for his MSM Super Wolf Pac press support. Nothing like Free and Fair elections right ? Mitt Romney Press Conference (Full Video 08-16-12)

Romney talks about Medicare during a news conference at Spartanburg International Airport in Greer, S.C.:

Please check us out on Facebook and If you like what you see, please "Like" us. You can find us here.

Anyway they try to spin it, Romney and Ryan cannot sell the privatization of Medicare and Social Security to the American people.

Just the thought privatizing Medicare to give the wealthiest Americans a 25% tax cut is disgusting.

lol...............what's even more disgusting and that you don't know what you're talking about..........but if you want to learn then listen to it comes directly from the source, Mitt Romney's own mouth. Or you can listen to MSNBC explain it the way you put it. Which is just another liberal/progressive lie.................which is the normal for Team Obama and his Brown-shirt supporters.

Romney/Ryan........................"Yes they will..............."

View the ad below, then share this post to every senior citizen you know to get the truth out about Medicare.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan plan to campaign together again sooner than aides had originally planned, likely twice next week, as part of a new offensive to take on the touchy issue of Medicare, campaign officials tell POLITICO.

and then we'll also get mitthappens steppin in it again when he mentally relapses into talkin about his not wanting/having to release any more of his tax return info. the guy is a frickin gaffe machine on overdrive. we think he's frickin awesome. some of his bs you can't just come up with as fast as he pukes all on his very own.

so.................................................go ahead team up clowns.

Politico, this article in Politico and discussion there is pro-Romney by allowing the issues to be tainted in their discussion which is being bought for reasons mentioned in the Shadow Elite Janine Wedel, and Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky.

There is little reason to participate to notice the difference in their writing and mine read my article "Mitt Romney Kills Small Business" you will notice how the Romney debate is superficial and tainted.

This looks and sounds just like another rerun of McCain/Palin - the flailing old man (Romney) getting tired on the stump and needs a jolt in arm from another young, naive, right-wing idealogue (Ryan).

Seen this road show before...Robmey gets a quick bounce in the polls, and then when everybody returns from vacation, and we demand to hear SPECIFICS of how Robmey/Ryan plan on GUTTING Medicare, Obama walks in to his reelection bid comfortably....

Anyway they try to spin it, Romney and Ryan cannot sell the privatization of Medicare and Social Security to the American people.

The American people are going to eventually have to decide between either bankrupting Medicare or reforming Medicare. Obama raided 716 billion from Medicare to fund Obamacare, so he is obviously leaning toward the bankrupcy option. Ryan has recommended reforms that gradually change the program from a defined benefit to a defined contribution.

Romney has not fully endorsed the Ryan plan, but he is definitely in the refrom medicare camp. Anyone who backs Obama on this issue has to be incredibly stupid, because with over 100 trillion in unfunded liabilities there is no way our entitlement system can continue without reform, You could confiscate 100% of the wealth from the wealthiest 50% of Americans and not come close to that amount.

Sheep that they are the democratic voters are being told that we can tax our way out of this hole. According to Tim Geithner in 10 years 92% of the federal revenues will be consumed by interest on the debt, medicare, medicaid and social security. The only way the US is going to be able to pay its bills in 10 years if we dont reform entitlements is to print money and that means going back to Jimmy Carter inflation. Seniors on fixed incomes are going to be sold out by the democratic party.

I think it’s time some of you who lampoon Mister Perceptions got a better understanding of why he is so persistent in declaring his deep and abiding passion for the magnificent musky man-mountain money-making mucho macho Mormon muchacho.

No, it’s not a manifestation of untreated obsessive compulsive disorder, you liberal smarty pants. Mister Perceptions loves America and is desperately trying to save it from being destroyed by a Kenyan pretender, a man who, although he has an admittedly decent outside jump shot, wants to turn America into a Caliphate and give all the rich people’s money to child molesters so they can buy more candy to use as bait.

Mister P knows there is only one way to assure victory in November. Victory can only be achieved by convincing a significant percentage of the 100 to 500 people who regularly read these comments in Politico to vote for MITT. In a close election, that can make a crucial difference. In a small state, like maybe South Dakota, that could make a big enough difference to swing it into the GOP column in November. Can you just imagine how that would confound the pundits? It’s all happening under their radar!

So that’s why every morning at 4:45 AM Mister Perceptions wakes up, puts in his teeth, and logs on to Politico to spread the Gospel of MITT. And he stays on ALL DAY LONG until his 8:30 bedtime!

Now, you might say, there aren’t a lot of folks on these pages who haven’t already decided where they stand on this election. And you would be right. That’s what makes him BOLD, much like MITT’s BOLD choice of that little cutie-pie Paul Ryan as his running mate. Mister P is here to convert the heathen who support Obama and enlist them in the MITT Brigade!

And how does he do it? He lacerates them with his deliciously wicked wit. His classic “Your boy, Obamie, is a really bad President, lol.” Or “lol…. Poor [insert screen name here], he is going to be soooooooo sad when his big hero, Obamie, loses in November!” The shame alone is enough to make anyone on the receiving end of such razor-sharp retorts want to give up on socialism and vote Republican.

And he can completely destroy the credibility of the writer of any story that says mean things about MITT by declaring that “He’s just another example of Obamie’s brownshirt-socialist-Marxist-Chicago-thug shanga langa ding dong MSM wolfpack!” Whoa! It almost makes me feel sorry for the poor reporters. I’ll bet they feel pretty darned bad after they read that, so help me Hannah!

So have a little respect, people. If on election night MITT wins the election by five votes in South Dakota, you’ll know it’s because Mister Perceptions worked so tirelessly! That would be no small thing, I’m telling you!

That's one way to get their all-over-the-board policy positions more aligned: go places together and listen to each other's stump speeches. The poor Republican Party. The poor Republicans in Congress; they made it a point of party pride to vote to make Ryan's budget the law of our land. When polling showed how politically toxic his budget was, they tried to bury it and forget it. But now Romney has picked Ryan and the budget the Republicans supported becomes a campaign centerpiece, like it or not. We don't need to hear Romney's improvised new plans and budgets, nor do we need to consider Ryan's latest bipartisan Medicare concoction or his forced flip-flops and hedging at Romney's request. If we want to know who Republican leaders are and where they want take our country, we only need to examine the Ryan budget Republicans tried to make the law of our land and the one Romney said he would sign as president.

Paul Ryan lied about requesting stimulus money for the State of Wisconsin. Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... /> He admitted last night he did request stimulus money in 4 letters to the government. Expect to see campaign ads about him lying about this issue. Paul Ryan could never talk about the economy and the stimulus anymore without being called out by President Obama and the Democrats. This will be the biggest story of the day. He's worst than Sarah Palin. HA HA HA!!!

“They really like each other and they feed off of each other,” campaign manager Matt Rhoades said. “There’s an energy, there’s a chemistry.”

Yeah they do feed off one another because they're so much alike. I can see why Mitt picked Paul Ryan now.

I'll tell you one thing if these "wicked smart" guys are elected and we take control away from the Mad-dog of the Do-Nothing Democrat Senate we will get things DONE ! and in a hurry..................tax reform.........saving Medicare and Social Security.........bring our regulations up to date to eliminate red tape but to keep "smart" controls in place. These actions will send signals to the markets and others around the world that America is taking action against our $ 62 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

Economic activity will pick up and we will growth ourselves out of this mess with increasing revenues coming into the US Treasury.....

Romney and Ryan KNOW how to get this done and on Tuesday night November 6th, 2012 let's make sure we hire a new Team to lead our country.........out with the old and ineffective and in with the "proven" new Team....

“They really like each other and they feed off of each other,” campaign manager Matt Rhoades said. “There’s an energy, there’s a chemistry.”

Obamie says to want to move FORWARD. What does that mean for our children?

obama pushes forward

Romney and Ryan KNOW how to get this done and on Tuesday night November 6th, 2012 let's make sure we hire a new Team to lead our country.........out with the old and ineffective and in with the "proven" new Team....

Romney has not fully endorsed the Ryan plan, but he is definitely in the refrom medicare camp. Anyone who backs Obama on this issue has to be incredibly stupid, because with over 100 trillion in unfunded liabilities there is no way our entitlement system can continue without reform, You could confiscate 100% of the wealth from the wealthiest 50% of Americans and not come close to that amount.

Mr Traficant, stop it. Just 12 years ago, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security were finanacially solvent programs. Only 12 years ago. Pres Clinton saw to it with a level of taxes and spending that ensured the survival of the safety net, and the CBO projections of the time verified it so.

The last decade of Republican policies aimed solely to starve the beast is what caused this mess. Only a return to what worked before Bush's disastrous decade will solve our problems.

Raise the taxes (and the spending) back to where they were before. It didn't stop prosperity then; in fact it ensured broad prosperity for the middle class.